Things Happen For a Reason
by Frank Zhang
Summary: When Hazel, his best friend and could-be girlfriend discovers Leo Valdez, or Sammy Valdez, her boyfriend in her past life, Frank is green with jealousy. However, what happens when Piper McLean turns out to be the object of Frank's love?
1. Chapter 1

Frank's breath caught in his throat. The world spun. "T-That's Sammy? The one from your past?" he managed to croak.

Hazel's eyes were wide with surprise. "Yes, it's him," she whispered softly. As if in a trance, she began to walk toward him. "Sammy," she called. "Sammy, it's me." Her dark black curls, the curls that Frank loved so much, bounced up and down as she walked toward her past boyfriend with unsteady feet. Her coffee brown skin was the color of chocolate in the sunlight, and Frank yearned so badly to touch that skin again, to hold her in her arms, to hug her, to comfort her.

But he couldn't. Because now, _Sammy_ was here. Sammy was going to do all that Frank had wanted to do, Sammy was going to protect her, and hold her and tell her he loved her.

Frank felt like punching something. Particularly Sammy, or Leo.

Leo's head turned. His face was confused at first, but when he caught sight of Hazel, his mouth widened into an o. "Hazel? Is that you?" he peered at her anxiously, searching for an answer in her light brown eyes. "Hazel…" his voice cracked. "How did you—"

"Sammy," Hazel repeated, and then tackled Leo with a ferocious hug, a ferocious hug that should've been _Frank__'__s_. "Sammy, I've missed you so much," her voice was muffled as she buried her head in his hair.

Frank turned away, disgusted. He began walking back to his cabin. His bitterness soon turned to sadness as he realized he had just lost his best friend.

Someone tapped him on his shoulder. He turned around to see Percy's green eyes staring back at him. "Yeah, man?"

"Sorry about that, you know," he motioned awkwardly toward the scene going on, "about Hazel and stuff." He paused for a second, and then continued with renewed vigor, "But I'm sure she'll come back, Frank. I mean, sure, yeah, Sammy—I mean Leo—is a real surprise, and she's missed him. But dude, I saw the way she looked at you before."

"Before," Frank echoed, his voice hollow.

"And she'll look at you the same way," he assured. "Seriously. Just wait a while and you'll see."

Frank forced a smile on his face. "Thanks."

Percy shuffled his feet. "Yeah, well, what are friends for? Let's go get some food. Cokes are on me, man." He flashed a smile as he hefted a six pack out of his bag.

Frank nodded, his energy suddenly drained. He dragged his feet as they walked to the woods.

As they walked over, as luck would have it, Hazel intercepted them, Leo in tow. "Guys! Guys!" she waved to get their attention. "I want you guys to meet Sammy."

"C'mon, call me Leo," he protested. "It's my name and all. _You_ didn't have to suffer a name change, but I did. I'm more used to Leo, you using Sammy is kind of…weird. Brings back memories."

Hazel shrugged. "Fine. Guys, meet Leo. He was my boyfriend, back in the 1930s…" She trailed off. "My first life," she added.

Frank thought, "We get it," but simply said, "Hey, I'm Frank."

Percy greeted him a little bit more warmly, saying, "Welcome to Camp Jupiter," and clapping him on the back.

Sammy flashed them a small smile before scraping his feet on the ground again, making the leaves fly up in flurries.

"Where were you guys going?" Hazel grinned a heart-breaking smile, and Frank had to blink some unwelcome tears out.

Percy gave Frank a sidelong glance, before answering slowly, "We were just going to go out to the woods, y'know, hang out."

"Awesome," Hazel smiled brightly. "We'll join you."

Percy gave him another _do-you-want-to-do-this_? glance. Frank nodded, albeit a bit weakly. Percy turned back. "Sure, we'd love to have you join us."

In a spot of bitterness, Frank thought, "Not like you ever thought about whether we wanted you there or not." Instead of voicing his not-so-nice thoughts, he just looked to the ground and began brooding. Angry, but seeing nothing _available_ to take his anger out on (oh, he would just _love_ to punch that pretty little face of Leo's—though he knew it wasn't really fair, Leo _had_ come before him—sadly, his face wasn't available as a punchbag), he just began to kick rocks and sticks on the forest floor, to the annoyance of the forest nymphs. He knew they would come back for him, and he would regret it then, but right now, the only thought going around in his head was, "I just lost my best friend."

Hazel's voice interrupted his thoughts. "Frank, are you okay?"

He just nodded again. Her voice was a little bit wearier, edged with annoyance as she said, "No, Frank, you're not okay. You're furious, and even I know that. So why won't you tell me what you want?'

He whirled on her. Her eyes were wide as she nearly bumped into him when she tried to stop. "No, I'm not okay," he snapped. "And you know why? Because he—" Frank pointed at Leo, "some random guy from sixty years ago tries to just swoop in and take you from me. I thought you were my best friend, but apparently not, because since Leo came you haven't even looked at me."

Hazel, whom was frightened at first, soon turned to anger. "Well, you know what?" She poked him in the chest, which made him stumble back. "You're being selfish right now. Leo was my best friend from before, and who can't blame me for trying to reconcile with him? Yes, maybe, I haven't paid you a lot of attention, but that's because _I__ haven__'__t__ seen __Leo__ for__ decades_. You're taking away my time with him, and you're also probably making him really uncomfortable, I say. So why can't you just give me some space?"

She was mad, Frank realized, she was really mad. His mind whirling in a way to make up to her, he just came up with one phrase. "Because I love you," he whispered softly. Then, he turned tail and ran out of the forest as fast as his stubby legs could carry him.

Finding a fallen tree to rest on, he put his head in his hands. "Shit," he groaned. "Oh my gods, please tell me I didn't just say that."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Yeah, I hate author notes, too. But I have to add a little something, sorry. Thanks so much to everybody for reviewing, I definitely didn't expect this much feedback with only a thousand words in the first chapter! I'd love to hear constructive criticism or ideas for following chapters. Also, I know in my summary I said that Piper would 'be from Frank's past', but I decided that was a little weird with Leo being from Hazel's past already, so I decided to just make Frank fall in love with Piper. Enjoy!  
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This time, it was Leo who had found him. "Hey, er, you," a soft voice had said. "Frank?"

Frank looked up with an annoyed expression, but took a double take as he realized he was looking at the messy brown hair, oval face, and impish smile of _Leo__ Valdez_. The one he was supposed to hate.

If it was under any other circumstance, Frank knew, he would've instantly liked Leo. He had a sort of mischievous expression and funny way of talking that promised adventure and fun. But this wasn't any other circumstance. He was Sammy Valdez. The one who would take away Hazel, _his_ best friend.

But not anymore. He knew he had seriously screwed up. "Fight with Hazel, and then tell her you love her?" a taunting voice in his head mocked. "Oh, real smooth, big guy. She'll sure want to be with you, now."

"Shut up!" he snapped, and then abruptly looked up. Leo had a surprised expression on his face. "Oh, gods, sorry," he rushed, "I was talking to—" he grinned, despite the grim mood he was in, "well, I was talking to myself."

Leo raised an eyebrow, but accepted his answer without a comment. "Okay, well, I was coming by to say…Well, I just wanted to bring a message for Hazel."

"What, she hates me?" Frank stared at the ground angrily.

"No," Leo assured quickly—_a __bit __too __quickly?_—and corrected, "Frank, she's crying right now. She thinks you were right and is really sorry."

Frank looked up. "She's crying?" His throat seemed to be tied in a knot. Oh gods, Frank would _never_ forgive himself if she was crying.

Leo began walking. "Here, I'll bring you to her."

Frank jogged to catch up. "She's really crying?" he mumbled again. "Gods, please tell me she's not."

Leo looked at him with a pitying expression. "You hurt her bad, dude. She feels really bad."

They came across her in the Hades cabin. Nico wasn't there, so she was all alone. She was sobbing into her pillow, her eyes and nose red. She looked up at them, squinting to recognize them. "Leo? And…Frank? Frank, oh my gods, I am so, so sorry." She sniffled. "I—" As she tried to say more, she was suddenly picked up and encased inside Frank's arms as he gave her a hug.

"Hazel," he murmured, "I thought you hated me."

She pushed him away, her eyes big with amazement. "I thought the same, Frank," she replied. "I thought I had lost you." Her voice cracked. "It's so good to have you back, Frank."  
>"You too," he whispered. And then he abruptly broke their embrace, untangling her arms from around him. "Let's go to dinner; I hear the conch horn."<p>

Frank walked with Hazel, and Leo stood awkwardly off to the side. "So, I better go with my, like, new cabin mates and stuff. See you later, Hazel…Frank."

Hazel looked at him, her eyes distracted. "Yeah, see you later," she echoed. Frank simply nodded. He wasn't sure if he was _quite_ ready to forgive the boy who had almost stolen what was rightly his.

As they walked, Hazel entwined her hand with his. It was a simple, innocent gesture, but Frank loved the feel of her soft, warm skin between her hands, and wished it could be like this, all the time.

But when they reached the dining pavilion, she took her hand back, and her cheeks turned red, as if she had just realized what she had done. "I'm going to go sit at my table now," she said, glancing at her empty, sad table, "I guess I'll see you later?"

Frank smiled. "I'd like that."

* * *

><p>Frank wasn't in much of a mood for campfire, so instead, he stole away, taking a walk in the forest. He jogged for awhile, just staring up at the sky and trying to avoid bumping into any of the trees with his flailing arms. When his legs started to ache, he sat down on a rock.<p>

And that was when he saw _her_.

Her name was Piper. Her choppy brown hair flew into the air when she turned around, as if in slow motion. Her eyes—oh, how he loved her eyes on first sight—flickered, changing from color to color, from brown to blue and then to a green like Percy's. They even glowed grey for a moment before returning to a hazel color.

She was beautiful, absolutely breathtaking, more gorgeous than Venus herself. He thought he had loved Hazel, but Piper—he had never felt this way about Hazel before.

He suddenly started imagining about their future only seconds after he had seen her, after he had seen her name stitched boldly in the center of her sweater. He imagined them going out, their first kiss, their marriage, buying a home, kids—everything you were supposed to think about years after you met that person.

But for some reason, she captured his interest in a way he couldn't explain. Piper was beautiful, so, so beautiful, and suddenly he couldn't imagine life without her.

He couldn't imagine life without this exquisite, lovely creature.

He got up, stumbling over his clumsy feet, running up to her. "I—I'm Frank." He held out his hand.

She stared at him a bit strangely, and then delicately shook his head. "Hi, Frank," she gave him a dazzling smile, "I'm Piper."

"I know," he gestured to her sweater. "I'm a son of Mars."

"Aphrodite," she returned. So _that_ was why she was so attractive. But she was more than attractive. She was _goddess_ beautiful, she was astonishing, mind-blowing, and she would be _his_. He would make sure of it.

"So why are you out right now? There's a campfire," he asked, trying to maintain an easy conversation and masking his excitement at the same time.

"I could ask you the same question," she grinned lopsidedly, which Frank instantly took to. "But, to be truthful…I'm a little homesick," she admitted.

"Homesick?" Frank questioned. "When did you get here? I've never seen you before."

"Oh, I'm from Camp Half-Blood," she explained. "I…well, I like it a lot better over there." She grimaced slightly. "Everyone's…nicer."

"Oh, I see," he nodded slightly, acknowledging her answer. "Oh, everyone—well, mostly everyone—is really nice, too. It's just that you're a _graecus_, and…well, we aren't too fond of them," he admitted.

"Graecus?" she inquired, tilting her head slightly.

"Sorry, graecus is Latin for 'Greek', or 'outsider'. We aren't too welcoming to those not of our kind." He grinned apologetically.

"I see," she stared off to the distance, as if absorbing the information. "I assume Jason and Leo are fitting in fine, and Annabeth is reuniting with Percy?" Her voice had a tinge of bitterness.

"Well, yes," he confessed, "but don't worry about it. Children of Venus—I mean, Aphrodite, seem to get along really well. I can introduce you to some of them, if you like?"

She brightened instantly. "I would love that," she agreed warmly.

"Okay," he grinned. In an impulse, he grabbed her hand and led her back to the cabins.

In his excitement, he had forgotten all about Hazel.


	3. Author's Note

Hey guys, what's up? Frank here. :) I just want to say sorry so much for abandoning you guys here. 3 I forgot about ol FF here for a couple months, and then I came back and couldn't understand anything I had written…haha. I completely forgot about the plots of my stories AND Rick Riordan's, so it might be awhile until you hear from me again.

No worries, though, I'm definitely planning to finish all my stories. Bear with me, though, I need to reread all the books and read that new one, Mark of Athena.

However…while this has been going on, I have been working on this fictional romance on Wattpad. It's not based after Percy Jackson; I just wanted to see if anybody would be interested in it. Any constructive criticism would be appreciated greatly. Here it is:

/story/2470124-learn-again

Update: I can't actually post the website, so just add a wattpad and then a .com before it and the link should work.

Thanks! Peace out.

- Frank Zhang


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